Stories from an endless summer
Hi folks! How’s your summer going? Any new adventures near or far?
In this summer edition of your Peaks and Penguins newsletter, I have some real-life news to share first! I’m writing to you from ALASKA. This beautiful state is our new home, and we are so happy to be here! I’ve accepted a job at a small-town school, and for the past couple of weeks, Kent and I have been settling in. I can’t wait to show you around – adventures are everywhere here!
Leaving Hawai’i wasn’t an easy decision. After a year in tropical paradise, I’d grown unreasonably attached to the good life there. But years ago, when we decided to stick around stateside for my citizenship, I shortlisted a handful of wild states where I’d consider wiling away our time. When an opportunity came up in Alaska, it seemed meant to be!
We departed Hawai’i at the start of June and made it to our new home last week. The journey from there to here was nothing short of tremendous – and I’ll be sharing some of that fun on the blog shortly! Arriving also confirmed our decision: it felt so, so right. Like Hawai’i, Alaska is easy to fall in love with. It looks like a painting; it feels like living within a national park.
One of my absolute favorite things about moving to the north is these extended summer days! It feels like there’s infinity time for adventures. Even the animals and plants appear to agree: everything and everyone is full of energy in this spectacular season. It turns out that I did not give up summer when I left the islands: I found an even more thrilling version of it, here on the far northern side of the Pacific!
New on the blog
I very much hope you’ll enjoy checking out a brand new and AWESOME segment of the blog: Penguins +! Here you can discover some of our best ever animal encounters, in bite-size chunks. This is something I’ve wanted to include on PnP since its inception in 2017, so it’s been a long time coming! There’s only four stories up right now, but the good news is that I’ve got so, so many more animal photos waiting for their turn in the spotlight. This is where I’m going to be focusing most of my attention in the coming months – so stay tuned for more animal tales!
That’s the big news – other than that, the blog has been a bit quiet recently. In the past two months of nonstop travel, I didn’t spend much time on my laptop. In May, I made the aforementioned Penguins+ page and added a handful of articles there. Just before departing Hawai’i, I put up a few local stories – including this one about our stunning Mauna Kea climb last summer!
The ravishing ROK
To my new newsletter friends, welcome! Many folks find their way to PnP for South Korea hiking and trail running info. There’s lots of that on the national parks and provincial parks pages – and don’t forget about the 100 summits mission(s)! There’s also a bunch of race reports for ya, if that’s what you’re into. As always, I’m here to help at: peaksandpenguins@gmail.com. What active adventures are on your South Korea list?
This part of the blog is definitely not static: although we’re no longer in-country, I do my best to keep things updated. In fact, I’ve planned a massive update for all of the South Korea pages for the latter half of this year. I’m going to be adding some custom maps and a handful of videos to the mountain posts – stay tuned! In the meantime, if you spot anything amiss, do let me know by leaving a comment on the article or sending me an email. Thank you – I appreciate you!
Coming up next
As you may have gathered, my big blog focus for the rest of the year is going to be filling out the new animal adventure page and updating our South Korea archives. But that’s not all! If time allows, I’d love to catch up with more of our US-based adventures – including California, Nevada, Utah and Hawai’i. And, of course, tales from our MASSIVE Great American Road Trip this summer! If you’re interested in the Arctic Ocean, bears gone fishing and glaciers galore, please drop by the blog again later this fall. There’s even going to be a new race report – the first in a while!
But be prepared to be patient: I’m also incredibly distracted by all things Alaska right now. Adventure planning is my secret real job 😉
Reading list
Here’s a few other tabs I’ve got open right now:
Why Insect Memories May Not Survive Metamorphosis – Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine: Just the other day, Kent and I were wondering if butterflies can remember being caterpillars. As if on cue, this article popped into my inbox a couple of days later. Although the title of the article is a bit of a spoiler, this one’s worth a read if you also want to know why.
With “thanabots,” ChatGPT is making it possible to talk to the dead – Ross Pomeroy, BigThink: Not my usual fare, perhaps, but AI is something that I’ve been running into a lot lately, both as an education professional and as a digital writer. Are you using AI in your work? I’ve only played with it – I’ve never actually employed it. This article, though a bit of a pop-sci summary piece, introduces one possible, perhaps macabre use for new tech – and its potential consequences.
A Refuge From Internet Algorithms Is Hiding in Plain Sight – Will Peischel, The Atlantic: A read to make you smile! I can absolutely relate to the author on this one – can you? I love playing with Google Maps both for planning purposes and just for fun. This piece explores how the randomness of it is the very reason it’s great.
That’s it for now, friends! If you’re a fellow northern hemisphere dweller, I hope you’re able to make the most of these last long summer days. When we say goodbye, I’m going straight back outside and will try to stay there until school starts. Wishing you the happiest trails and sending hugs!
Until next time, your friend,
Carrie
